1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to medical instruments for measuring bodily functions and physiological parameters, and more particularly, to a device for sensing and transmitting sounds originating within the body, and timing a periodicity associated with such sounds.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The stethoscope is a widely used medical instrument which is employed by physicians, nurses, technicians and medical students for conducting sonic physiological diagnostics and testing. As is well known, the stethoscope includes a pickup head, which is placed against the body over the heart or lungs, and one or a pair of flexible, tubular sound conveyance channels. The flexible tubular channels extend from the pickup head to a pair of ear plugs which the nurse, physician or diagnostician wears for the purpose of listening to sounds developed by organs of the body, such as the heart or lungs, which are detectable at the outer surface of the body by the use of the pickup head. Stethoscopes used for the purpose described are of relatively standard construction, and have not undergone significant change for a long period of time.
One of the most important uses of the stethoscope is to listen to the heart sounds of a patient. These sounds are, of course, time-related and normally tend to be rhythmic or, in the case of some types of cardiac anomalies, arhythmic. In order to properly evaluate and diagnose cardiovascular performance, the physician must measure time intervals for the purpose of properly characterizing the heart sounds detected by the use of a stethoscope.
In the past, such timing and rhythmic characterization of stethoscopically-detected sounds originating from the cardiovascular system have been accomplished by the use of a timepiece carried, as is usual and conventional, on the wrist of the physician or the nurse, concurrently with the use of the stethoscope. This, of course, requires that the physician or nurse hold the pickup head of the stethoscope against the body of the patient with one hand, and then turn the other hand and wrist into a position where the timepiece can be observed and the time parameter quantified and synchronized with the cardiovascular sounds.
At this time, the ability of the physician to perform digital manipulations requiring the use of both or even one hand is totally precluded, and either a nurse or third party must perform any needed digital manipulation, or it must wait until the physician has completed his evaluation of the time parameter concurrently with the detection of the bodily-generated sonic emanations. On some occasions and in some situations, a wall clock may be within the view of the physician and may include a second hand which will enable the physician to time a period of listening and heart sound occurrence by observation of such wall clock. On other occasions, however, the position adjacent the patient which must be occupied by the physician does not permit convenient viewing of the wall clock, and it is then essentially useess for the purpose described.